By: Dwight Links
Online GBV is more prevalent than thought in Namibia. This was the shared message from the first-ever report on ‘Understanding Online Gender-Based Violence in Southern Africa’ held on Tuesday in Windhoek.
The report found the Covid-19 pandemic revealed many aspects of gender and vulnerability online in Namibia.
“Issues related to data protection became more prominent, with women reporting harassment by strangers (predominantly men) who have picked up their details from registers kept by public and private companies. These registers were meant to collect personal information as part of Covid-19 contact tracing measures put in place by the Namibian government.”
The report mentioned that contact tracing and mobile applications collecting data raised serious concerns about privacy and protection of personal data or information.
According to the report, GBV in Namibia has reached alarming levels.
“UNFPA Namibia reported that over 1 000 people are raped
each year. More significantly, 90 per cent of these are women. Another startling revelation is that 6 per cent of pregnant women in Namibia experience physical violence during pregnancy, while 15 per cent of GBV survivors never seek support services.”
During the launch, the panel’s contributors included activist Linda Baumann, Office of the First-Lady advisor Dr Veronica Theron, deputy finance minister Maureen Hinda and deputy director of Institutional Policy Regulation and Monitoring (IPRM) Elizabeth Kamutuezu.
Baumann indicated that it is not easy for people who are survivors of GBV.
“You live with fear. I have had to reduce my social life and interactions in digital and real-life settings. This is due to harassment in each realm that I have received.”
Baumann is from the Namibia Diverse Women’s Association, where they work to advance women’s issues in society.
“I have even been harassed digitally on my social media platforms and in real life – where my car had markings with abusive language on it, or messages sent to me directly filled with profanity about my gender,” she shared.
Baumann also stressed that the only way digital behaviour should resemble real-life is by factoring in civic education or communicating as widely about the impacts of online abuse.
The deputy finance minister shared her own experience regarding a well-publicised social media, in which Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda allegedly posted a picture of a woman with the caption: “It looks like deputy minister of finance Maureen Hinda during the liberation struggle. Maureen was soo WizWiz. It’s like she won’t think twice about taking a knife out!” According to Hinda, this was a deliberate act to destroy her reputation.
“The remarks made on these social media platforms about me by this individual are still there until this day, and the person refuses to take them down,” Hinda said.
“He is not prepared to apologise publicly for what he did in public. I am taking my experience further to make an example of him. I am a victim of this because my case is before the court currently. I was in total shock and felt so insulted by these acts.”
“I am suing for N$ 1 million even though people are saying the highest that was awarded from a civil case is N$ 300 000. He was given the opportunity to apologise and remove the posts, and decided to continue with his attacks on my person,” she ended.
Meanwhile, Dr Theron argued that no matter how much society speaks about the GBV problem, it will not be solved if there is no real support for the government officials representing law and order, the courts and councillors for the affected.
Theron has been a social worker since the country’s independence. She says her experience has shown her how fragile the support system is for women and girls hurt by the acts stemming from GBV.
“We make much noise about the police not doing enough, but we forget the constraints that they also experience in order to do their jobs. The police are mostly under-supported. The victims are targeted when they need more protection. The prosecutor cannot build a case or prosecute if the evidence is not complete or strong enough from the police. The files can go missing in evidence. The magistrate depends on the prosecutor to present strong cases in the courts to deliver impactful judgements.”
Theron noted that if enough support is allocated to the Namibian Police, they would have more than enough tools at their disposal to tackle digital GBV scenarios.
“That is one more avenue that has to be looked at. Empowering the police to combat cyber crimes like the online GBV ones to generate results,” she added.
Theron shared how a victim she had worked with in her early career was targeted even beyond the protection services from the law and order agencies.
“I requested from the girl to provide her phones and communications devices to store the proof and evidence of abuse and harassment. And when she left for her home town in public transport, a girl sitting next to her in the same vehicle told her that the abuser was sending his regards to her. This showed me how the safety net can be infiltrated by the perpetrators to influence the victim,” she said.
Awareness and Civic Education
IPRM’s Kamutuezu stressed that many Namibians do not have the discerning capability to distinguish when they are being abusive online and when they are participating in harmful practices digitally.
“Many people who I have seen share and repost images and videos do not know that they are participating in a potential crime, or the words they share can land them in big trouble. This is something that stems from the false belief they have that they are safe to share these files how they want to,” Kamutuezu said.
“This is where ordinary citizens need to educate and inform each other to be mindful of their actions.”
Another panellist, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia’s (Cran) adjudication, enforcement and litigation manager Maria Andimba, said that one of the implementing mechanisms they can initiate as a regulator is the SIM-card registration that they have recently embarked on.
This comes as, from 1 January 2023, Namibian mobile operators will be required by law to register all their customers’ SIM cards and gather relevant information before selling and activating them.
“This becomes one tool in this fight because of the multiple cards that one person can own to perpetuate the harmful acts that we hear of,” Andimba said.
The report looks at online GBV in the SADC region, focusing on Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique.
It was established through the partnership of Meta, Internet Society Namibia Charter, Gender Links and the Centre for the Human Rights University of Pretoria.
For Namibia, the report recommended that the government repeal existing laws that are no longer fit for purpose and pass all the pending laws that will ensure perpetrators of online GBV
and other forms of GBV are dealt with immediately and proportionally to send a message across the nation.
It also recommended that “pending legislation such as the Data Protection and Privacy Bill could be used to meet national commitments, UN Sustainable Development Goals, promoting increased access to the internet and fighting online violence.
“There is a need to constitutionally recognise digital rights as human rights. Government needs to provide credible statistics that various stakeholders can work with to deal with OGBV effectively. Regulators must ensure legal frameworks are in place to deal with online violations and engage with social media platforms to disempower violators’ use of the platforms.”
